The clock is ticking for Defense and Veterans Affairs department employees who telework or are on remote work agreements. And there’s a pretty good chance agencies will not be ready when the clock strikes zero over the next month.
The return-to-office push is one of those “sounds good on paper” ideas that at least one long-time federal labor attorney says is harder to accomplish in reality, especially in the timelines these two agencies have laid out.
“When we went into pandemic lockdown and hired people to do remote work, everyone had a contract and the conditions for which the agency can terminate that remote work agreement and what the employee’s rights and benefits are,” said a former federal official, who spent more than 20 years in government with multiple agencies working on employment labor issues. “One of those benefits is that the government has to pay to move you if you are more than 50 miles outside of your duty station and we call you back to work. It is a bit of poison pill for the agency. While some agencies do get money to pay for some moves, especially law enforcement agencies, most are not given a lot of money to do this.”
The official, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution by the current administration, said agencies would have to go to Congress to get more funding or approval to reprogram funding to pay for these moves.
DoD sets Feb. 7 deadline
The expert says these new requirements for DoD, and likely every agency, opens the door to more questions than they answer, and there are no easy answers.
Before trying to lay out all the potential challenges in the return-to-the-office approach, let’s detail the facts from the DoD and VA memos.
DoD employees within 50 miles of their agency worksite must report to their office by Feb. 7.
“DoD components will terminate telework and remote work agreements for all DoD employees who work remotely or via telework within 50 miles of their agency worksite,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote in a Jan. 31 memo obtained by Federal News Network. “Employees must report full-time in person to their agency worksite no later than seven days from the date of this memorandum.”
And for those outside the 50-mile range, DoD is varying the requirements, but all non-bargaining unit employees must be at their agency worksite no later than the end of May.
Members of the Senior Executive Service and highly qualified experts (HQEs) in DoD who are remote workers or full-time teleworkers and aren’t within 50 miles of their duty station, have until Feb. 7 to report to their agency worksites.
Employees at the General Schedule-15 level and other senior professionals who too aren’t within 50 miles of their duty station have until Feb. 21 to report to their duty stations.
VA not terminating all remote work
VA is giving all non-bargaining unit employees and supervisors who are within 50 miles of their office until Feb. 24 to return to full-time in person office.
For those outside of 50 miles, VA isn’t terminating those remote work and telework agreements and said further guidance is coming.
“Return to in person work requirements for bargaining unit employees will be announced at a later date,” the memo from acting VA Secretary Todd Hunter stated. “VA’s policy allows exceptions for arrangements approved for employees as a reasonable accommodation due to a disability or a qualifying medical condition. Exceptions may also be allowed for military spouses with permanent change of station orders.”
For VA this means figuring out how to make sure it has room for more than 47,000 workers who potentially are coming back to the office on a full-time basis.
For DoD, the return to full-time office work means anywhere from 15% to 29% of their workers are coming back to the office. The Pentagon didn’t provide the Office of Management and Budget in August with an exact number of employees who are teleworking, but just offered a percentage of employees who currently are working in the office.
- Air Force/Space Force: 85% in person nationally; 77% in person within the national capital region (NCR)
- Army: 82% in person nationally; 72% in person within the NCR
- Navy/Marines: 81% in person nationally; 71% in person within the NCR
- Fourth Estate: 73% in person nationally; 77% in person within the NCR
For those employees in a bargaining unit, of which there are about 1,200 units across DoD, Hegseth wrote DoD will have to satisfy labor relations obligations. But, at the same time, offices and agencies have until Feb. 7 to submit an implementation plan to the Office of Management and Budget and Office of Personnel Management to address give key considerations, including:
- The number of employees on remote assignments, their duty locations and the most appropriate office for them to work;
- An estimated cost and resource implications when a new duty station is more than 50 miles from the current worksite;
- An assessment of any risks, barriers or resource constraints that would prevent the return of all employees to in-person work, including the availability of office space, budgetary impacts and the components’ plan to overcome these barriers;
- A description of the office’s process to determine exceptions for employees based on disability, medical condition or other reason;
Information regarding application collective bargaining agreements and what is needed to bring these CBAs into compliance with the White House requirements.
The former labor employment attorney said there are five areas that will potentially impact DoD and VA’s plans.
Enough office space is a concern
Paying people to move back to the DC area or to their worksite. Agencies haven’t budgeted for these moves and would have to find the money to pay for the employee’s move.
But the expert said it’s not just the move, but the increase in salary too if they are now to receive a higher locality pay.
The office space, especially for classified workers who may have teleworked one day every two weeks, will be especially tough.
DoD told OMB in August that, “Within the last five years Washington Headquarters Services has terminated 561,000 square feet of leases and returned 275,000 square feet of space to the General Services Administration to be used by other federal tenants. Within the next five years, WHS plans to further reduce the leased space portfolio by 512,000 square feet occupied under GSA agreements.”
VA, meanwhile, has reduced its office space by more than 290,000 square feet over the last few years in the NCR and even more outside of the DC metro area.
In fact, a Federal News Network pulse survey of federal employees found 55% of 4,363 respondents were extremely or very concerned about their agency’s ability to have enough office space to accommodate the return of federal employees full time.
“The VA medical centers do not have enough space to accommodate every employee and maintain the privacy of veterans when needing to meet. Hybrid schedules and remote/telework options have balanced this out,” wrote one respondent. “When an office space is needed it’s now available due to the alternative staff schedules. Staff are happier when they can balance their home needs with work needs through flexibility of duty location and schedules. Many staff are now able to save money since they don’t have to drive into work every day. Administrative hours can predominately be done anywhere. Positions that require direct daily contact with veterans is very different than pulling data for a report. Agencies should be allowed to determine what their needs are based on their gaps and what they have for resources.”
Another respondent said, “My agency has been on four days a pay period since 2021, we do not have the space to accommodate a full agency return to work. The premise behind return to work implies that services are not being performed and the needs are not being met to serve the public. One of the overarching themes of the incoming administration is to improve government efficiency. Will Congress appropriate additional funding to agencies that have reduced or surrendered their office space to reduce costs in leasing and utilities now that there is a return-to-work mandate? Will Congress fund construction and build out of office space for those agencies that have reduced their office space? Has the reduction in office space had an impact of the services that the agency has been able to provide?”
What feds should consider
Then finally, many of the collective bargaining agreements and remote work agreements aren’t easily cancelled and will open the door for lawsuits.
“A secretary can’t just cancel an agreement because agreements say how and when the agency can cancel contract. There are these agreements that were signed and put in full effect for 3-4 years now and they can’t ignore them because courts will enforce them,” the attorney said. “And if you reopen collective bargaining agreements, if union says no, then you are in court. And if you do reopen the CBA, you can talk about anything and is the union ready to do that across the government?”
The attorney said in the short term employees should consider their situations and see how best they could comply with the return to office mandate.
Among the things an employee should consider are talking with a labor employment attorney, talk to their financial planner and educate themselves about their options through law firms or employee unions.
“The first thing an employee has to figure out is how this applies to them and not do anything dramatic. If there is a way for you to comply in the short term, do so and don’t react suddenly because they seem to be changing things,” the source said. “At end of the day you have to do what you think is best and there is an awful lot of unknowns. Unfortunately for many federal employees, they are walking through minefield without a map.”
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